2.4 Activity plan and work packages

Besides a more general project description, project applicants are expected to provide details about the project’s activity plan. The activity plan is organised into work packages. The activity plan should be realistic and coherent, and if carried out, lead to the achievement of the project overall objective.

The project overall objective provides the general context for what the project is trying to achieve, and aligns with the programme priority specific objective. It relates to the strategic aspects of the project.

The project specific objective is a statement describing what the project is trying to achieve. Each project can have several specific objectives which should logically contribute to the project overall objective.

In operational terms, each project specific objective should be translated into a dedicated work package. This means that each work package should represent a milestone, or major developmental step in the project lifecycle necessary to be able to achieve the overall project objective. It is recommended to have up to 3 work packages.

Work packages provide information about the timing of the activity plan, the involvement of project partners, details about activities and deliverables, and if relevant, details about the outputs expected to be achieved by the end of the work package.

A deliverable is a side-product or service of the project activities that contributes to the development of project output(s).

Outputs should be quantified with the use of output indicators. You can find more information about the indicators in chapter 2.3.

Note: project outputs should be described in the work package that will deliver the output. Each work package does not need to deliver an output.